American Airlines and U.S. Air Begin Trading as American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL)

Shares of the newly formed American Airlines Group Inc. began trading this morning under the symbol (AAL) on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. The merger of the two airlines will create the largest carrier in the world with American emerging from bankruptcy. The new company will be headed by U.S. Airways CEO, Doug Parker and his executive team.

New CEO Parker is set to ring the opening bell for the Nasdaq Stock Market this morning along with employees of the new company. The group will ring the bell remotely from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, which will mark the beginning of trading of the new companyâ s common stock.

Fort Worth, Texas based AMR Corp., parent company of American Airlines, has been under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors since November of 2011. In February of this year, American announced plans to merge with smaller airline U.S. Airways. The new company will retain the American Airlines name and brand and, under terms of settlement of a lawsuit with the U.S. Justice Department and several States Attorneys, maintain U.S. Airâ s existing hubs in Phoenix, AZ, Philadelphia, PA and Charlotte, NC. While the merger is effective today, the two airlines will begin phasing in booking codes so that flights for both airlines can be booked through their systems this month. Nevertheless, full regulatory approval for the airline to operate under a single air operatorâ s certificate is expected to take at least 18 months. The biggest challenge facing the new airline consists of integrating both companyâ s booking and reservations systems without too many problems. This element has caused problems for other airline mergers, such as the merger that created United Continental in 2010. CEO Doug Parker already has experience combining two airlines. In 2005, Parker helped create todayâ s U.S. Airways after merging with America West Holdings Corp. In an interview on December 4th, he said that, â

Published on Dec 9, 2013

By Jay Hawk

Jay Hawk enjoyed a 12-year professional financial markets career incorporating extensive first hand futures and options experience obtained by trading in the stock, commodity and forex markets on U.S. exchanges. Since retiring as a full-time financial market professional, he has been actively trading stock, commodities, forex and options for his own account and managing funds for others, as well as writing financial market commentary and educational articles.